Mariners GM: Jesus Montero made ‘bad mistake,’ now will ‘pay the price’

This week, Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik and club president Chuck Armstrong are paying a little visit to prospect Jesus Montero — who was suspended Monday for 50 games after violating the MLB’s performance-enhancing drug policy.

Jesus Montero. (Getty Images)

According to Zduriencik, it’ll be a “one-on-one session,” “just a normal conversation.”

Well, “normal” isn’t how we’d put it. They’ll be telling Montero he should never take PEDs again.

Montero, 23, was one of 13 players suspended Monday in the ongoing Biogenesis scandal — ongoing because the biggest target, Alex Rodriguez, plans to appeal his 211-game suspension and play through the rest of the season. Montero was one of the 12 players who got 50-game bans for their first offenses, following a months-long MLB investigation into players linked to the now-shuttered South Florida doping clinic.

“We support the (drug-testing) program, we support the suspensions, we support what’s happened,” Zduriencik said Monday before the Mariners game in Seattle. “So hopefully it will be a deterrent for anyone that wants to do this in the future, and outside of that there’s not much more we can say about it. You made a big mistake and you’re paying a price for it — a pretty severe price — and, again, hopefully a message will be sent.”

Montero batted .260 last year in his rookie season, but in 2013 struggled to get anything going at the plate. On the M’s Opening Day roster as their starting catcher, he was demoted to Triple-A Tacoma on May 22 after batting just .208 with 21 hits and 21 strikeouts in 101 at-bats. Soon afterward, Montero went down with a torn meniscus in his knee and only returned to the Rainiers in late July.

He was still on Seattle’s 40-man roster when the suspension hit Monday, and will be able to serve his 50-game suspension in the minors even though the Rainiers have just 27 games remaining this season. Under MLB policy, the M’s get a new slot on the 40-man roster to make up for Montero’s absence.

Montero is restricted from participating in game-related activities and cannot suit up, but he will be able to continue training with the Mariners’ farm teams. Zduriencik said Montero will likely be sent to Arizona to finish the season practicing in the rookie leagues.

“I look at it as a bad mistake,” Zduriencik said of Montero’s PED use. “And I think that once he serves his suspension — players get second chances, people in life get second chances, no matter what walk of life you’re in. And I think in this particular case, I think once his suspension is over we will view it as that, and it’ll be behind him.

“I’m interested to sit down and talk to him. Chuck and I will have a one-on-one meeting with him; it will be interesting just to have just a normal conversation. And he’s gonna pay the price. Hopefully we’ll get this behind us and he’s learned from it, and we go on and it’s about baseball again.”